Mothering in liminality: Toward a definition of third culture parenting

Abstract

Objective

This study proposes a preliminary definition of third culture parenting drawn from the experiences of relatively privileged expat mothers who raise their children outside of their passport country.

Background

A vast literature examining third culture kids (TCKs) in the context of expatriate postings exists, as does research on parenting styles among middle-class, U.S. families; however, there is little scholarship exploring where these intersect: an emerging style of third culture parenting.

Method

This gap was explored through an inductive, qualitative analysis of data collected from 11 in-depth interviews with middle-class mothers who were all married and globally mobile because of their husbands' work. In total, these families lived in 17 countries.

Results

Respondents reflected on the challenges and opportunities of parenting while suspended in a liminal space between geographic locations and cultural contexts.

Conclusion

This article examines several paradoxes that emerged in the analysis: juggling intensive parenting with children's increased independence, navigating family dynamics that are both insular and egalitarian, and creating a sense of belonging in mobility. Analysis of these paradoxes of mothering in liminality is significant if the transnational lives of expatriate families are harbingers of the kinds of identities and family relations that are becoming commonplace in a mobile world.

Implications

The phenomenon of TCKs is well documented in the scholarship, but it must also be understood in relation to an emerging style of third culture parenting among expatriate families, which may inform therapeutic interventions aimed at these families.